The present invention provides a cane assembly and more particularly an assembly operable between a monopod and a multitipped cane arrangement.
These canes or ambulatory aids are generally utilized to assist in walking for infirm patients, elderly individuals with walking disabilities or other persons requiring assistance to maintain their balance or in need of support. The present invention provides the user with a degree of mobility and is not specifically intended for use as a novelty or fashionable dress item. A common walking stick is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,210,493 to Lisi and may be both functional and fashionable, but is only a cane abruptly ending at a relatively sharp point.
Mobility and movement for a recovering patient or infirm individual is often a difficult procedure and any aid or movement-assisting device is useful to such person to avoid confinement to a bed or wheelchair. Canes and crutches have been utilized for many decades, but minimal development to these apparatus has been provided in recent years. Therefore, the injured or infirm party is left to utilize the available equipment, which is sometimes inadequate for specific parties or in particular situations.
The need to accommodate individual circumstances is highlighted by earlier cane and crutch structures. Cane and crutch structures must be adjusted to the user's height. Indicative of the various means proposed for varying the height of the cane or crutch are a walking stick with a multitipped pod at its end shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,289,685 to Parker. The stick has a shaft extending from the pod and an upper tubular portion matable with the shaft. A pair of bolts passes through aligned holes in the mating shaft and tube to secure them. However, an alignment bar is required in the tubular member to mate with a slot in the shaft. The illustrated quadrapod is a very narrow arrangement with small annular pads, which may not provide the necessary resistance to slipping, thus exposing the user to an unstable or a precarious position. In addition, setting the initial height of the lower pod requires manually cutting the upright tubular shaft of the lower pod. Further, the monopod tip must be removed and replaced when changing between the separate modes. Another height-adjustable structure is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,409,365 to Lamb, which provides a pair of mated threaded members at the lower end of a crutch for screw-adjusting the crutch height, and a lock-screw to secure the height setting.
A quad cane assembly is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,085,763 to Thomas, which assembly is height-adjustable and has a stabilizing collar for balance and control for the user. Another quad bottom cane is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,302 to Breen et al., which provides male and female threaded coupling members for either a quad bottom cane assembly or a walking cane with a single contact point. A locknut on the male thread is adjusted to secure the height of the mated members.
The above-noted cane assemblies generally have a cane tip to fit over the surface-contacting point or points, which tip may serve as a wearing pad, an anti-slip device or as a multi-purpose tip. Illustrative of these various cane tips is the crutch tip disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,177,884 to Thro, where a composition or molded rubber cup has an insert holder molded into its end to accommodate a sharp-pointed, insertable projection to aid the user on icy surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,283 to Tritle, Jr. discloses a disk with a lower convex surface for crutch operation on sand, and alternative disks are provided for use on snow or ice. Variation of the disks requires removal of the previous disk and insertion of the new disk by affixing it to a washer inserted in the crutch tip. Earlier attempts to accommodate alternative crutch tips included a tip which could be screwed to the cane end, that is again mating of male and female threaded members.
The earlier cane and tip assemblies are not generally easily assembled and disassembled for conversion between a monopod cane and a multitipped cane assembly with pads on the multiple tips having wide profiles and elongate arms to minimize slippage and maximize traction and load distribution.